Options Trader: Tuesday Wrapup

Yet another record day (well, the intraday high anyway).

But did we pass our test? I think we did because we had awful hosing data but didn't tank the market (in fact we got a huge dip at 10 and recovered nicely).

We have more awful housing data ahead tomorrow, and the dreaded Fed Beige Book, but Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) indicates Durable Goods Report may not be a total disaster. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) rocked the after hours with a 10% gain -- which will make our spread plays very interesting tomorrow! Will it be enough to kick-start the Nasdaq? That remains to be seen...

We also have earnings tonight and tomorrow from: Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Boston Properties Inc. (BXP), Cheesecake Factory Inc. (The) (CAKE), Canon Inc. (CAJ), Carter's Inc. (CRI), LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. (LFG), Panera Bread Company (PNRA), Radian Group Inc. (RDN), ST Microelectronics N.V. (STM), Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW), Travelzoo Inc (TZOO) (critical to airlines) and Websense Inc. (WBSN) (tonight), and Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APD), Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (BUD), Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI), Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BDX), Business Objects S.A. (BOBJ), Cabot Corp. (CBT), Choice Hotels International Inc. (CHH), Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL), ConocoPhillips (COP), Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG), EnCana Corp. (ECA), Enersis S. A. (ENI), Exelon Corp. (EXC), F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV), Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF), Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.(FCX), Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (FSL), Genzyme Corp. (GENZ), Corning Inc. (GLW), GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (HMY), Hess Corp. (HES), Honda Motor Co. (HMC) (good Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) hint), IHOP Corp. (IHP), International Coal Group Inc. (ICO), International Securities Exchange Inc. (ISE), iRobot Corp. (IRBT) (vint), K2 Inc. (KTO), LSI Logic Corp. (LSI), Meritage Corp. (MTH), Moody's Corp. (MCO), Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR), New York Community Bancorp Inc. (NYB), Norfolk Souther Corp. (NSC), Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK), Pepsico Inc. (PEP), Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM), Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), QIMONDA AG (QI), Raytheon Company (RTN), Sycamore Networks Inc. (R), Sealed Air Corp. (SEE), Smith International Inc. (SII), TASER International Inc. (TASR), Boeing Co. (BA), Terex Corp. (TEX), Stanley Works (The) (SWK), UAL Corp. (UAUA), Unisys Corp. (UIS), United Parcel Service (UPS), W.R. Grace & Company (GRA), WellPoint Health Networks Inc. (WLP), Wendy's International Inc. (WEN), Xilinx Inc. (XLNX), XTO Energy Inc. (XTO), Zimmer Holdings Inc. (ZMH) so it will be surprising if anyone even notices economic data amid all these numbers.

While we didn't get stellar performance, we did get a starring role from the SOX which gained 15 for the day, amazingly just shy of a market-leading breakout. The Transports continue to be hopeless, but declining oil prices gave us a glimmer of hope ahead of our airline earnings:

Index	Current	Day's Move	Must Hold	Comfort Zone	Break Out	Next Goal
Dow	12,953	34	12,468	12,600	13,000	13,500
Transports	2,889	-12	2,825	2,900	3,000	3,250
S&P	1,480	0	1,430	1,460	1,500	1,550
NYSE	9,648	-12	9,218	9,465	9,600	10,000
Nasdaq	2,524	1	2,454	2,500	2,600	2,750
SOX	499	15	477	490	500	560
Russell	826	-1	803	820	850	900

Lanza Tech got $3.5M in funding from Khosla Ventures to move forward with their process of producing ethanol from waste carbon monoxide. Targeting steel mills, this bacteria-based technology may be able to produce over 1B barrels of oil per year while curbing green-house emissions, that's a good thing!

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